US reports lowest average of daily Covid-19 infections and deaths since March 2020. But experts warn millions are still vulnerable
The US is making significant strides in curbing the coronavirus pandemic just in time for the summer, with reported infections reaching a new low over the last year.
The country averaged less than 14,400 daily reported infections and 427 deaths over the past seven days, according to Johns Hopkins University data. It’s the lowest the US has seen since late March 2020, just weeks after the pandemic was first declared.
The good news comes as about 42% of Americans are fully vaccinated, while nearly 52% have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But health experts are warning that the recent lag in vaccination rates leaves millions unprotected against Covid-19 variants that have made their way to the US from other parts of the world.
The US reached its peak of daily vaccinations on April 1, with more than 4.3 million people inoculated in one day, according the CDC. Since then, the numbers have plummeted. Over the past week, an average of roughly 560,000 Americans have been vaccinated each day.
As the US enters what the former CDC director called the “slog-phase of the vaccination campaign,” health experts have been drawing attention to both vaccine hesitancy and accessibility issues.